This course isn't as simple as being handed a textbook, told to study it and then regurgitate it back in an exam. Most of it feels as though you are shooting in the dark just hoping you hit the target. It feels as though you are wading through fog, and just when you think it's starting to clear, another wave comes over you.
This is why, I think, the handbook suggests we work in cycles or stages. You read the handbook, get a grasp on one point, and then when you come back around, you find something else. I have learned that there is no finite answer in this course. It's all about the journey and what you discover along the way.
In some ways it reminds me of a blog I created whilst mapping my practice in Module 2 titled "Mapping to Build Understanding". I based this around a Ted Talk titles "Happy Maps" I came across where Daniele Quercia had created an app that offered people a scenic route to get to where they wanted to go. It would only add on a couple of extra minutes onto their journey and would take them down a route that would allow them to discover something new and not be stuck in traffic. This app has been used by people who have lived in the same city for years and taken the same routes to change their perspective and to discover something new about their home. It also showed that people would arrive at their destination with a feeling of calm and happiness to be able to have traveled a different path.
Perhaps this is the way we should be viewing our Modules. Taking a more 'scenic' route to the destination and discovering something new along the way.
Below is the link to the Ted Talk "Happy Maps" by Daniele Quercia
Hi Cathleen. I love the Happy Maps analogy! What a great way to look at things. I discussed something a little similar in Module one as I reflected on a section of the book 'Feel the fear and do it anyway'. It explained how 98% of the time when a pilot is flying a plane they are off route, continually correcting themselves, straying then righting themselves in the air. It's only in the very last moments of the flight that they are on target to their destination. Makes me feel better about 'getting things wrong' or not going directly from A to B. Got to trust we will get there in the end and that it's all learning along the way. (You're certainly my most trusted co-pilot in this process...haha). Right I'll stop with the analogies! x
ReplyDeleteHey Sophie. That's also a great analogy to make - and really nails how I feel on the BAPP course too! Juts got to keep correcting our route and trust that we will come to some sort of definitive answer in the end. I am more than happy to be your trusty co-pilot!
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